Greece’s radical former prime minister Alexis Tsipras returned to office on Sunday night after his far-left Syriza party won a clear victory in Greece’s general election.

Despite a tepid campaign that saw Mr Tsipras’s personal popularity fall sharply, preliminary results showed the 41-year-old’s far-left Syriza party had won sufficient seats to form a coalition government in the coming days.

After a tight race, Syriza ran out comfortable winners, with initial projections showing them falling only five or six seats short of the 151 seats needed to govern.

Addressing his supporters in central Athens after the result, Mr Tsipras said: “In Europe today, Greece and the Greek people are synonymous with resistance and dignity, and this struggle will be continued together for another four years."

"We have difficulties ahead, but we are also on firm ground. We won’t recover from the struggle by magic,but it can happen with hard work."

Greece's centre-right Independent Greeks confirmed they would again team up with Mr Tsipras, continuing their eight month coalition which is on course for a total of 155 seats.

Terence Quick, a spokesman for the nationalist party (Anel) told The Telegraph that his party would form a coalition with Mr Tsipras.

"Tsipras will be the PM and we will be the guarantee of stability," he said on the sidelines of a victory rally in Klafomonos Square in Athens.

Mr Tsipras will be confirmed in office on Monday with the formal announcement of his coalition to be made by Wednesday at the latest.

The new government will be faced with the daunting challenge of implementing the stringent reforms demanded by the €86bn bail-out package agreed to in July.

The programme has already split Syriza and in recent weeks cracks have begun to appear even among those MPs who remained loyal Mr Tsipras.

Mujtaba Rahman, head of Europe practice at the Eurasia Group, said the prospect of another Mr Tsipras-led government would not inspire many of Greece's creditors.

"Given how challenging the bail-out agenda is between now and year-end, a return of the previous coalition isn't great news," he said. "It was spectacularly incompetent last time around. Tonight's result will worry creditors."

"There is no space for any renegotiation or concessions from creditors, especially with Angela Merkel distracted and struggling with refugees. Out of all of the plausible coalition scenarios, this is by far the worst."

But in a boon to the re-elected premier, Syriza's rebel breakaway faction Popular Unity failed to get make the three per cent threshold needed for parliamentary representation.

“This is a fragile party, although one third of the members broke off there are still radical elements left who can create problems for Tsipras,” said Marco Vicenzino, a Greece expert at the Global Strategy Project, a risk consultancy.

The result for Mr Tsipras came at the end of a month-long campaign that failed to engage weary Greek voters who were making their third trip to the polling booths for a major vote in just nine months.

Polling stations across Athens were almost eerily quiet in some places and voter turnout fell to 55 per cent - the lowest since modern records began.

Casting his vote earlier in the day, Mr Tsipras has called for a mandate for a “strong government” that could last four years and help Greece force through the reforms required to put the country back on a path to prosperity - he did not get his wish.

After voting, Mr Tsipras struck an altogether more sombre tone than in January when he was elected prime minister on a wave of euphoria, promising to force Greece’s eurozone creditors to back down over its austerity demands.

In the event Mr Tsipras was forced to sign up to a package of reforms that will test any governing coalition to the limit as Greeks are asked to endure a ferocious round of tax hikes, pension cuts, privatisations and labour reforms in order access further bail-out funds and possible debt relief.

The new Greek government will have only a matter of weeks to pass legislation cementing the 60 “prior action” laws needed to retain the confidence of creditors that was so badly damaged during July’s crisis negotiations.

We need a “fighting government” Mr Tsipras added, warning of the "confrontations” ahead that would be necessary in order to “move forward with reforms”.

Two women exit from the election booths as they cast their vote at a polling station in Athens

French presidient Francois Hollande, who worked tirelessly to keep Greece in the single currency, was the first major world leader to congratulate Mr Tsipras.

The French premier said the result was a "significant" success for the re-elected premier.

"Greece will have a period of stability with a solid majority," he told reporters.

Mr Tsipras’s failed brinkmanship with Europe was the target of attack by New Democracy, the conservative establishment party that closed a 15-point gap with Syriza in the course of the campaign, but looked to have lost by 7 or 8 per cent according to exit polls.

Casting his vote earlier, Vangelis Meimarakis, the 61-year-old New Democracy leader and former defence minister, had called for voters to banish the “falsehoods and misery” of the Syriza era, and bring in “authentic people” who could competently run the country.

In the end it the Greek public – while clearly disgruntled with both Syriza and politics in general – were apparently not prepared to return to an establishment party that is widely blamed for the corruption and clientelism that brought Greece to its knees.